Gabrielle-Roy Library by Saucier & Perrotte architects + GLCRM architectes

The transformation of the Gabrielle-Roy Library by Saucier & Perrotte with GLCRM architectes reimagines one of Québec City’s most significant public institutions as an urban, social, and cultural engine. Situated at the heart of the Saint-Roch neighborhood—a district defined by its creative energy and rapidly evolving community—the renewed library expands its role beyond that of a traditional knowledge repository. It becomes a multi-level civic landscape where public life, learning, and cultural production unfold across interconnected strata of space.

Extending Public Life into the Urban Fabric

At street level, the design introduces a generous outdoor forecourt that strengthens the relationship between the library and the surrounding neighborhood. This open, porous ground floor dissolves the threshold between building and city, encouraging casual encounters and continuous pedestrian flow. Visual and spatial continuity with the adjacent public realm reinforces the library’s presence as a civic anchor, transforming its immediate surroundings into an active urban stage for community life. This is where the project’s intent becomes clearest: to elevate the library from a destination into an everyday cultural landscape.

Inside, the ground floor accommodates the most community-driven program elements—reception spaces, a culinary workshop kitchen, a small amphitheater, children’s collections, newspapers, and civic-oriented material. Designed as an extension of the street, this level sets the tone for an architecture that prioritizes openness, inclusivity, and multipurpose engagement.

A Vertical Journey Through Knowledge and Light

Above the bustling ground plane, the upper floors are organized as a vertical sequence of atmospheres that alternate between introspection and outward connection. Levels 01 and 03 host collections dedicated to literature, history, philosophy, science, geography, and technology. These quieter realms wrap around the central atrium, where abundant natural light filters down and outward views open toward the neighborhood. A delicate fritted glass façade creates a diaphanous veil that tempers sunlight, producing soft, luminous environments ideal for reading, study, and personal retreat.

Level 02 shifts the tone again, embracing a more expressive and outward-looking character. Defined by transparent glazing and a distinctive mesh ceiling, this floor hosts music, cinema, art, and travel collections—materials naturally aligned with creativity and cultural exploration. The openness of this level mirrors the vibrancy of Saint-Roch itself, extending the library’s cultural dialogue with its community.

A Hybrid Institution of Learning, Making, and Performance

Beyond reading rooms and collections, the new Gabrielle-Roy Library integrates an unusually broad array of cultural and creative spaces. Users can access a music studio and multiple practice rooms, a projection space, a fabrication lab, and flexible art workshops. These facilities support emerging practices, encourage interdisciplinary experimentation, and invite diverse forms of expression.

The amphitheater at the heart of the building becomes a focal point of programmatic activity. It serves as a venue for public lectures, performances, screenings, and gatherings, reinforcing the library’s identity as a social and cultural hub rather than a quiet, isolated archive. By distributing these spaces across the building, the design creates a rhythmic experience in which each level offers a different form of engagement—quiet immersion, creative exploration, communal interaction.

A Library Reimagined for a Dynamic Community

The renovation and expansion of the Gabrielle-Roy Library represent a strategic reinvention aligned with the evolving needs of a diverse and growing population. Its layered spatial organization—oscillating between introverted study zones and outward-facing cultural platforms—reflects a nuanced understanding of contemporary library use. The project expands the definition of what a library can be: not merely a storehouse of books, but a shared civic living room, a creative incubator, and a social connector.

Through clear architectural gestures, sensitive light modulation, and the integration of a rich cultural program, the new Gabrielle-Roy Library embodies the essence of a modern “third place”—a welcoming environment where learning, making, and community life converge in a fluid and inspiring whole.

Photography: Olivier Blouin